A Staff Officer with the 23rd Corps Remembers Resaca

The following letter about the Battle of Resaca was written by an officer serving on the staff of Brigadier General Jacob D. Cox. Cox commanded the Third Division of the 23rd Corps and the officer was on detached service with Cox from the 103rd Ohio. The 103rd Ohio was part of the Second Brigade of Cox’s division in General Mahlon D. Manson’s brigade (65th Illinois, 63rd and 65th Indiana, 24th Kentucky, 103rd Ohio, and 5th Tennessee) and at Resaca was led initially by Colonel John Casement; the wounding of General Manson elevated Casement to brigade command and devolved command of the 103rd unto Captain William W. Hutchinson who was killed in battle.

          The life of a staff officer on the field could be filled with danger as this officer describes. Dodging Confederate shell fire, he witnessed one shell pass “not more than a foot from my right side, which I can see distinctly turning end over end and the air was very severe, but fortunately it did not explode, or it would have been good evening with me.” His account of Resaca appeared in the June 6, 1864 issue of the Cleveland Morning Leader.

 

 

Forage cap with corps badge from the Third Division, 23rd Army Corps

Cartersville, Georgia

May 22, 1864

 

          The enemy were in a strongly fortified position on a thickly wooded ridge and in assaulting them we were exposed to their storming fire of shell, grape, and canister. We were nearly across and were slightly covered by the hill they were on when General [Jacob] Cox discovered that General [Henry M.] Judah’s division was not following up on our right. I, being the only staff officer with the General at the time, he sent me across that valley of death to notify General [John] Schofield of the fact, and it so happened that I got directly in range of their shells fired at the left of our division. I heard the messengers coming, looked behind and saw one explode about 30 feet behind me. A few steps on and another burst about ten feet on my left. While crossing a small fence an awful shrieking shell went directly under my horse, broke a rotten rail, and exploded not six feet from me; my horse snorted, jumped a little, throwing one foot out of my stirrup, and that’s all. He is a good horse so far as being scared is concerned.

          A moment after, while crossing a small creek, and elongated shell passed not more than a foot from my right side, which I can see distinctly turning end over end and the air was very severe, but fortunately it did not explode, or it would have been good evening with me. I never will want a warmer place. I crossed that field five times afterwards where iron and lead fairly rained in sheets and when General [Charles] Harker’s brigade crossed over to our support, I was sent out to the center of his line to direct him to General Cox. It was hot then, too. General Harker is a brave and gallant officer. Standing in his stirrups, his sword waving high, cheering his men, he seemed the only man on the field so marked was his figure. I had not trouble finding him and when there thought every Rebel in their works was firing at us.


Battlefield of Resaca, Georgia


          A few minutes after, while Generals Harker, [Mahlon] Manson, and Cox with his staff were standing together, a shot was directed at us which exploded directly over General Manson’s head, knocking him from his horse, causing a severe concussion of the brain, wounding General Harker in the leg, and almost deafening General Cox such that he couldn’t hear a word for several minutes. It was so close that its blast fairly blinded us for several seconds and its heat was quite intense. Our division lost very heavily in the engagement more than any other in the whole battle.

          The 103rd Ohio lost about 100 in killed and wounded; Captains Hutchinson and Philpot were among the number. Hutchinson was as brave as a lion. Captain Philpot was shot through the body by a shell, tearing him fearfully. Our color sergeant, a member of Co. E, was shot through the head. The regiment was flat on the ground, but he stood bravely waving the colors and when he fell he clasped the flag and went with it. One of the color guard immediately grasped it until he dropped, and so on until the whole color guard was killed or wounded. We were for hours under the most terrible fire that ever took place on the same ground.

Drummer of 103rd Ohio
103rd OVI Museum


          We supported the 20th Corps (Hooker’s) on the extreme left of the line. The 23rd Corps has shown itself well and General Schofield is very proud of it, particularly so of the Third Division. We took two lines of rifle pits which is work enough for one day, especially under such a murderous fire. General Judah of the Second Division has been relieved because his command suffered so severely without accomplishing much.

          Tomorrow we start again on a 20 days’ campaign and we expect very hard times. We have got to dislodge the Rebels from the Altoona Mountains. Many a brave man by die doing it. I simply pray to God to protect me and in I go. General Cox is very lucky; he has never lost a staff officer, but the Lord knows he used them lavishly on the battlefield, and do I know it!

Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular Posts

Arming the Buckeyes: Longarms of the Ohio Infantry Regiments

Image
     A common question that comes up in conversation about Civil War Buckeye regiments is "What were they armed with?" We are fortunate in that the state of Ohio kept good records of how the regiments were armed when they went into service, this being especially true for those regiments which went into service in 1861 and 1862. The state adjutant general's reports for 1861 and 1862 have been heavily drawn upon to construct this article, as well as consultation with Phil Spaugy who has done extensive research on how Ohio's troops were armed during the war.      Buckeyes carried a fairly wide variety of weapons into the field, and the below article breaks this down into weapons of both domestic manufacture and imported arms. The early days of the war found the state of Ohio practically bereft of longarms; as an example, when the 1st and 2nd Ohio Volunteer Militia left the state in late April 1861, they left unarmed, being armed at Lancaster, Pennsylvania on their way to
Read more

Dressing the Rebels: How to Dye Butternut Jeans Cloth

Image
     In the early days of the Civil War,  the Southern states found themselves with an abundance of cotton but a shortage of cloth with which to make army uniforms. The trade in cloth prior to the war had largely been to send raw cotton or wool north to New England (or Great Britain) where it was converted into usable cloth; but now that trade was broken and the Southern states were thrown upon their own resources in their efforts to properly clothe the Confederate army.  This collection of Confederate enlisted men's frock coats and shell jackets gives some indication of the variety of shades of butternut worn during the war. All of them are shades of yellow brown, some heavier on the yellow and some heavier on the brown. The blue used around the collar or as rank insignia indicates that the soldier was in the infantry. Surviving Confederate uniforms are considered rather rare and command quite a healthy price in the collecting market. For an in-depth study of how Confederate jacke
Read more

Bullets for the Union: Manufacturing Small Arms Ammunition During the Civil War

Image
       Civil War bullets are perhaps the most common item collected from the era; the two armies expended bullets by the millions during the four years’ conflict and spent or deformed bullets of all shapes and sizes have made fascinating and affordable collectibles since the guns went silent in 1865.       I recently acquired a display piece featuring 35 different types of small arms ammunition used during the Civil War, including everything from a small .28 caliber ball up to a .69 caliber three-ring Minie and it triggered some questions: how did the Federal army obtain its small arms ammunition during the war? Where did the lead come from to make the bullets, and where and how was the ammunition manufactured? This post seeks to answer those questions. A typical .58 caliber 3-ring Minie bullet   “Whenever the blasts of war blow in the ears of men who trade in the implements of destruction, they are apt to experience more joy than the true warrior, for then comes the harvest of gain.
Read more

The Cannons are Now Silent: The Field of Death of Tupelo

Image
       The smoke of battle had drifted away from the battlefield at Tupelo, Mississippi on the hot afternoon of July 14, 1864, but the carnage of war lay spread across the open fields. “Scattered at intervals over the field of a few yards are dull gray blotches half shaded by grass,” an officer from the 7 th Minnesota Infantry recorded. “These are the Rebel dead. They have fought their last battle and lie generally in attitudes of rest; some of them look as if they had welcomed death. On the faces of two is imprinted a smile. One is a boy of 16 with delicate features, almost girlish in their beauty. His last gaze seems to have been directed toward his hand on the forefinger of which was a ring. A circle of purer white indicates its place; the ring was carried off as a trophy of the field.” The following account of the Battles of Tupelo and Old Town Creek was written by an unknown officer of the 7 th Minnesota Infantry, his account appearing in the August 5 th 1864 edition of the
Read more

The Vaunted Enfield Rifle Musket

Image
     The English-made Model 1853 .577 caliber Enfield Rifle Musket was widely regarded as the best infantry arm in the world at the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. Favorable international press describing its efficiency in the Crimean War and in suppressing the Indian rebellion led to the widespread desire of American infantrymen (both Federal and Confederate) to be armed with these accurate and well-made arms. The lock plate of this well-worn P1853 Enfield rifle musket produced in 1862 shows the typical markings of a British-made weapon that made it through the Federal blockade.  ( Army of Tennessee Relics ) Enfield-pattern weapons were imported into the states by the tens and hundreds of thousands during the war years; one estimate stated that the Federal government purchased 500,000 while the Confederates purchased another 400,000. The Confederate government dispatched Captain Caleb Huse to Europe in April 1861 to purchase weapons and Huse focused on securing all the Enfi
Read more

Straw Already Threshed: Sherman on Shiloh

Image
  W illiam Tecumseh Sherman was enjoying retired life in New York City when just before Christmas in 1889 he was presented with an article written by John Cockerill, a former drummer boy in the 24 th Ohio who was visiting his father Colonel Joseph Cockerill of the 70 th Ohio of Sherman’s division when the Battle of Shiloh began. Cockerill’s article, originally published in the New York Journalist and later featured in the January 1893 issue of Blue & Gray Magazine, Sherman later pronounced as “the best war story ever written” and the truest account of Shiloh.           On New Year’s Day 1890, General Sherman composed the following letter to his friend Marshall P. Wilder thanking him for sending along Cockerill’s article and giving his own explanation of Shiloh. “This to me is straw already threshed for we have fought this battle on paper several times, a much more agreeable task than to fight with bullets,” he concluded. “When in England some years ago I was gratified to liste
Read more

Federal Arms in the Stones River Campaign

Image
  T he following list, constructed after many years of research, lists unit by unit which type of weapons were carried by the Army of the Cumberland during the Stones River campaign. A number of sources were consulted including state ordnance reports, Federal quarterly ordnance reports (thank you Research Arsenal ), Ken Baumann’s Arming the Suckers, regimental histories and memoirs, captured ordnance reports, and consultation with knowledgeable experts in the field of firearms. Some of this information has been shared on the blog before in “ Rosy’s Heavy Metal: Artillery of the Army of the Cumberland ” or “ Shoulder Arms: How Sheridan’s and Davis’s Divisions Were Armed at Stones River ” but this is the first time the army as a whole has been presented. The overall conclusion I drew from looking at this data is that the Army of the Cumberland in December 1862 was an organization in the midst of transformation as far as arms. Many of the regiments still retained their original issue
Read more

Escape of Captain Henry H. Alban of the 21st Ohio Infantry

Image
Captain Henry H. Alban was among the dozen officers of the 21 st Ohio Volunteer Infantry who were captured on September 20, 1863 at the Battle of Chickamauga. The regiment had held its position atop Snodgrass Hill against repeated Confederate assaults and now battered and without ammunition, with the darkness of evening enveloping the hill, the remainder of that gallant band found themselves at the mercy of the 54 th Virginia. A total of 12 officers and 121 enlisted men surrendered; the regiment’s colors were taken, and the men marched off the field into captivity. Captain Henry Harvey Alban, Co. F, 21st O.V.I. Captain Alban along with the rest went through a series of Confederate prison camps before arriving at Columbia, South Carolina in October 1864. Determined to make an escape, he watched for his chance and one night made his leap for freedom, successfully eluding the local camp guard and setting out along the railroad to head for the mountains of eastern Tennessee and
Read more

Knapsack Compression: Wilbur Hinman recalls the first step of becoming a veteran

Image
L ooking back on his experiences during the war, Captain Wilbur Hinman of the 65 th Ohio (perhaps best known as the author of Si Klegg and His Pard ) recalled that the first road along which his regiment marched was strewn “with debris. A pair of six-mule wagonloads might have been gathered of notions that had been flung aside by a thousand suffering “tenderfeet.” “The average young patriot started for the war with a wheelbarrow load of clothing, a bed quilt or two, books, photograph albums, toilet articles, and gimcracks of every sort,” he wrote. “Neither he nor the good homefolks had the slightest conception of the capacity of a knapsack, nor did they for a moment imagine that before the close of his first day upon the road every pound he carried would seem a hundred.” To the true mark of a veteran soldier was one who “learned to dispense with every unnecessary ounce of weight, and just in the ratio that he did this he increased his efficiency as a soldier. It was of the highest
Read more

Federal Arms in the Chickamauga Campaign

Image
T he ordnance returns of the Army of the Cumberland at the end of September 1863 show the results of a transformational year in weaponry. Since taking command of the army at the end of October 1862, General William S. Rosecrans had repeatedly pestered the War Department to supply his regiments with better firearms both to improve the command’s efficiency as well as expand its striking power. The results speak for themselves: for the infantrymen at the end of September 1863, 90% of them now carried Class I long arms (36,058 out of 39,959), 8.3% carried Class II arms, and a mere 1.5% carried Class III weapons. Most of the foreign-made weapons (except Enfields) were gone, and by and large the army had settled on a single common .58 caliber ammunition, although a few .54 caliber and .69 caliber weapons remained within the ranks. The English-made Enfield rifle musket was by far the most common arm, carried by 56% of the men while the second-most common arm was the .58 caliber M1861 Spring
Read more